1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a weather strip that is provided on a flange of a vehicle body opening periphery of an automobile.
2. Related Art
The vehicle body of the automobile has openings such as an engine compartment opening, a door opening, a trunk room opening and the like, and a weather strip is provided on the flange of each of the vehicle body opening peripheries. The weather strips form a seal between the vehicle body opening peripheries and the counterpart members such as the door, the engine hood or the like.
In the case that the weather strip is provided in the vehicle body opening periphery, the weather strip is provided such that the flange of the vehicle body opening periphery is inserted in a trim portion having a substantially U-shaped cross-section of the weather strip.
For example, as shown in FIG. 3, air enters into the engine compartment of the automobile from between the vehicle body 1 and the engine hood 2 at the front side of the automobile during traveling. Meanwhile, rainwater or dust enters into the engine compartment through a cowl louver portion from a windshield 8. At this time, there is a need to prevent the generation of noise due to unnecessary airflow from areas other than the forward side of the front of the automobile, and engine sound coming from the engine compartment to the outside. The weather strip (cowl seal) that is provided on the flange of the cowl louver mounted on the rear end side of the engine compartment seals the gap between the engine compartment and the engine hood preventing the entrance of rainwater and the like into the engine compartment from the backward side of the front.
In order to prevent the generation of the abnormal noise and the entrance of foreign materials, the weather strip is attached to the flange of the cowl louver provided on the vehicle body MD at the peripheral edge of the engine compartment, for example, at the rear end side thereof (for example, see JP-A-2005-67375 and JP-A-2006-160022).
As shown in FIG. 5, the weather strip 110 has a trim portion 120 that is attached to the flange 7 and a hollow seal portion 140 that has a hollow shape and is in contact with the rear surface of the engine hood 2 to form a seal therebetween. The hollow seal portion 140 is in contact with the rear surface of the engine hood 2 so that the opening (an upper portion opening of the engine compartment) is sealed.
The trim portion 120 forms a substantially U-shaped cross-section with the vehicle exterior sidewall 121, a vehicle interior sidewall 122 and a bottom wall 123. An insert member 129 of a metal plate is embedded within the trim portion 120 to reinforce the holding of flange 7.
In the interior portion of the substantially U-shaped cross-section of the trim portion 120, vehicle exterior flange holding lips 124 and 125, and vehicle interior flange holding lips 126 and 127 having an V-shaped cross-section respectively are extended from the inner surface of the vehicle exterior sidewall 121 and the vehicle interior sidewall 122 toward the bottom wall 123 side of the interior portion of the trim portion 120.
With respect to the flange 7 that is provided on four sides of the periphery of the opening of the engine compartment, the flange 7 is inserted into the interior portion of the substantially U-shaped cross-section of the trim portion 120 from the upper direction thereof to provide the weather strip 110 on the flange 7. Vehicle exterior flange holding lips 124 and 125, and vehicle interior flange holding lips 126 and 127 are provided from the inner surface of the trim portion 120 and the holding force is reinforced by the insert member 129. The flange 7 is pinched and held, the orientation of the weather strip 110 is held and is prevented from removal from the flange 7 by the flange holding lips 124, 125, 126 and 127. At this time, the hollow seal portion 140 that is integrally provided on the upper portion of the trim portion 120 is in contact with the rear surface of the outer periphery of the engine hood 2 so as to form a seal between the engine compartment and engine hood 2.
However, to reinforce the holding force of the trim portion 120, the insert member 129 is often formed from metal, so that total weight of the weather strip 110 is increased and consequently does not assist with the need to reduce the weight of the automobile.
The flanges on each of the four sides of the opening of the engine compartment may be separately provided; and the flanges on each of the four sides are not necessarily continuously provided. Thus, even the weather strip 110, which is different from a trunk weather strip, is not formed as a loop but is independently and linearly formed on four sides of the periphery of the opening of the engine compartment, and the end portions thereof are in contact with or close to each other. Accordingly, when a force in the removal direction is applied to the end portion of the weather strip 110, the weather strip is easily removed from the end portion compared to the weather strip 110 that is formed as a loop.
As shown in FIG. 6, a weather strip 210 that is used in the trunk room opening, has a hollow seal portion 240 and a trim portion 220. the insert member made of metal is not embedded within the sidewall or the like of the trim portion 220, and a vehicle exterior sidewall 221, a vehicle interior sidewall 222 and a bottom wall 223 have substantially constant thicknesses respectively, and then are formed of hard rubber material or high hardness resin material (for example, JP-A-2008-230258). The vehicle exterior sidewall 221 and the like have a substantially constant thickness so that stability of the shape is improved during extrusion molding.
However, in this case, because a metal insert member is not embedded, the goal of reducing the weight of the weather strip 210 can be achieved. However, the thickness of the sidewall portion of the trim portion 220 is constant and the trim portion 220 is formed linearly from the bottom wall side to the opening side so that the opening side end portions of the sidewalls of the trip portion 220 are easy to deform in a direction away from each other due to a reaction force from the flange holding lips 225 and 227, and the force with which the trim portion 220 grips the flange 7 is decreased and the trim portion 220 easily separates from the flange 7 in some cases.
When the weather strip 210 is provided in a corner portion of the vehicle body opening portion, because the weather strip 210 is bent, the holding lip 226 and the like are deformed inward (sidewall side of each lip) so that there are cases where the weather strip 210 may be easily removed, seal performance may be degraded, or weather strip 210 (the trim portion 220) often collapses due to a balance of the vehicle interior holding lip 226 and 227, and the body seal lip 228 for draining water.